WICKER PARK — A mural on a boarded-up storefront that once served as part of the exterior set for a fictional record shop in the movie "High Fidelity" has been replaced with an advertisement for City Soles, a local shoe store that will be moving into the spot in March.
Back in July, Adam Rotter, a local street artist, acknowledged the mural he had painted on the boarded-up wall would not last forever because the building's new owners were looking for a tenant. Rotter had painted the mural on the building after receiving permission from the previous owner, but he wasn't paid for the work.
Currently at the Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues intersection, City Soles at 2001 W. North Ave., will be relocating one block south to 1514 N. Milwaukee Ave. in March.
Instead of removing Rotter's mural, Scott Starbuck, owner of City Soles, hired Rotter to cover the mural and to replace it with an ad for the shoe store.
"It's the coolest thing ever that he hired me to cover my own mural. Now, no graffiti people can come and tag [the mural] and I can take the mural with me when the ad comes down," Rotter said.
Alisa Hauser says City Soles has a well established relationship in the neighborhood:
During the year that the mural was up, Rotter had to do several touch-ups, prompted by the fact graffiti taggers had defaced his work, which features a woman's face alongside a bubble cartoon question, as if she is thinking aloud.
Rotter was also hired by Starbuck to clean and paint the new shop's basement and get it ready for City Soles' arrival.
Starbuck said that the advertisement covering the mural will be permanently removed in March when the boards are taken off and replaced with glass storefront windows.
Boarded up for almost 15 years, the storefront at 1514 N. Milwaukee Ave., on the northwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Honore Street, was used as an exterior set scene in the 2000 movie, "High Fidelity."
The 3,000-square-foot corner space, which extends down Honore Street, served as the exterior for "Championship Vinyl," a record store owned by John Cusack's character, Rob Gordon.
The three-story building, which features a blue-and-white turret and contains several condo units above the street, was built in 1902 by Joseph Dercheimer and designed by architect H. Olgen, according to a 2007 report by the city's Department of Planning and Development.
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